Author Archives: Nicholas Copeland

Nicholas Copeland is an anthropologist who teaches in the Department of Sociology at Virginia Tech. He is the author of the Democracy Development Machine (Cornell University Press, 2019) Open access online: hyperlink {https://cornellopen.org/9781501736
A picture of the the surface installation of the Escobal Mine in San Rafael Las Flores. Photo taken from above overlooking a green valley divided by plots.

Science and Justice: “Impartial” Water Monitoring and Resistance to the Escobal Mine in Guatemala

Editor’s note: This is the third post in an ongoing series called “The Spectrum of Research and Practice in Guatemalan Science Studies.” A water monitoring process conducted around a controversial mine site in Guatemala highlighted the central, but also contested and indeterminate, role of science in environmental struggles. Groups with competing aims, and distinct conceptions of science and politics produce (or influence the production of) distinct forms and interpretations of science to ground their claims and shape the outcome of environmental conflicts. (read more...)